


Love, Life and Captain Crunch

by lovelywords



Category: Clueless (1995)
Genre: Childhood, Coming of Age, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelywords/pseuds/lovelywords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A coming of age piece that explores Cher's first real heartbreak and the person in her life who unexpectedly helps her get through it. This takes place a few years before the film.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love, Life and Captain Crunch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reapingfolk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reapingfolk/gifts).



Cher Horowitz is fourteen years old when she suffers her first real heartbreak. It's Ben Andrews, the hottest and most popular guy in her ninth grade class who deals the ego crushing blow to her usually perfectly intact self esteem. Having a single dad who thinks she's the most perfect and beautiful being on this earth (and tells her so as frequently as possible) has helped shape her overly healthy self image and is mostly a good thing, but high school opens up all kinds of emotional floodgates he can't protect her from.

While Cher typically finds high school guys her own age immature and repulsive, Ben's different. She's not sure if its his clear blue eyes, charming smile or his perfectly shined Gucci loafers, but she's smitten. He seems to feel the same way about her, because before she knows it, they're holding hands in the hallways, passing notes in English class and having lunches together every day by the fountain in the quad. Also, he lets her borrow his Cranberries CD, which we all know is a total sign of committment.

It's a Wednesday, exactly a three weeks from when Ben first asks her to be his girlfriend when she arrives to English class early and finds him making out with Jenny Halpert in the empty classroom. She gasps at the sight but quickly puts her hand to her mouth and slips out without being noticed.

She makes it all the way to the girls bathroom down the hall without bursting into tears.

Only when she confirms there's nobody else in there, does she disappear into one of the stalls and allow herself to sob for a good five minutes. The door eventually squeaks open followed by the sound of chatter and giggling of her classmates, so Cher takes a deep breath and wipes the tears from her eyes. She fantasizes about charging back into the classroom and slapping him across the face but decides against it. It's not her style to go postal. That's something Amber would do and clearly she's no role model for civilized social behavior.

 

 

{***}

When Cher gets home that afternoon she digs through the fridge for some cucumbers (a breakup is no excuse for puffy eyes) and throws them in the freezer for later.

Lucy, their housekeeper, who's standing at the counter chopping vegetables, looks at her strangely.

"Are you okay Miss Cher?" she asks.

"I'm fine!" Cher replies cheerily, grabbing a carrot stick and biting into it. "Just giving myself an at home facial later."

This seems to appease Lucy who turns around and goes back to her dinner preparations, giving Cher the opportunity to quickly disappear upstairs to her bedroom.

She collapses on her fluffy pink canopy bed and immediately begins trying to distract herself by flipping through the latest issue of Teen Vogue. It's hard to focus on the merits of solids vs. stripes however, when her love life is in such disarray. The words on the page begin to blur together as the additional tears she promised herself she wouldn't shed begin to fall again.  She reaches for the box of tissues on her bedside table and as she blows her nose she catches a glimpse of not only her swollen eyes and red nose in the mirror but Josh shuffling uncomfortably in her doorway.

He's been in town for the past week visiting colleges and basically eating them out of house and home. Cher always whines about his visits, but somehow by the time he leaves she's ends up glad he came, even though she won't always necessarily admit it.

He's wearing one of those ridiculous plaid flannel shirts of his and has a box of cereal tucked under his arm. Only Josh would be wearing a flannel shirt on an eighty five degree day in Los Angeles.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" she snaps, grabbing for a tissue and sniffling into it.

He looks at her confused. "Um...well the door was open."

Cher fixes her eyes on the pink flowered comforter. "What do you want Josh?"

He shrugs. "You seemed upset when you got home. You ran up those stairs like you were running from a party in the Valley being raided by the cops. I just wanted to see if you were okay."

Her face softens. "I'm fine, I was just trying to break in my new Mary Janes."

Josh puts his free hand on his hip and glances at her suspiciously. "It's not like you to come home right after school. Shouldn't you be at the mall or something?"

Cher rolls her eyes. "You really need to get some new material. For all you know, I could be in here reading War and Peace."

He smirks, slightly impressed she's even aware that piece of literature exists.

"Are you?"

"No. But I could be."

"Well I don't want to come between you and Tolstoy, but I'll be spending quality time with the couch, some music videos and the finest culinary delights Quaker Oats has to offer if you're interested in joining me." He pats the box of Captain Crunch tucked under his arm.

She waits until she hears the hum of the television in the living room before she climbs out of bed and heads downstairs, a small smile playing on her lips.

 

 

 

 

 

{***}

Cher picks up the thick heavy book sitting next to Josh on the couch. "Crime and Punishment," she reads aloud in a singsong voice.

Josh laughs and lifts the remote to flip the channel. "I don't think the title of that novel was ever meant to be spoken aloud in such a jovial manner."

She rolls her eyes and pushes back her headband. "You take life way too seriously Josh. You know, if you actually paid some attention to your social life instead of staying home and reading depressing books, maybe you'd have a girlfriend."

"I do have a girlfriend." he retorts defensively.

Cher raises an eyebrow. "A real one?"

"Yes a real one."

"I remember that girl you were dating in high school back when our parents were married. She had some unfortunate facial hair and wore those really tight black leather pants." She giggles.

"She did not have unfortunate facial hair." Josh shoots her a dirty look and snatches the book out of her hands. "Why are you so fascinated by my social life anyway? What about you?"

Cher goes silent realizing she should have never started this conversation. He picks up on her uneasiness and they sit there in silence for a minute.

"Does this have to do with why you came home so upset today?" Josh asks.

She nods and concentrates on the television to keep herself from crying. "Lets just say I'm never dating another high school boy again."

He looks at her sympathetically. "You know, we're not all like that right?"

"I hope not," Cher mutters. So far shes 0 for 1.

Josh puts a hand on her shoulder. "And I know your dad probably has it well covered, but if you ever need me to set any of these guys straight, you have my number."

She smiles gratefully at him, touched that he cares enough to be protective of her. Whether she likes it or not, through his relationship with her dad, Josh is likely going to be a permanent fixture in her life and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

They look at each other for a moment, the seriousness too much for either of them because the next thing she knows, Josh reaches into the box of Captain Crunch and tosses some at her.

"Hey!" she screeches pulling pieces of the cereal out her hair.

Cher digs in the box and throws some back at him, and before she knows it they're engaged in a full on food fight and she's laughing so hard she can hardly breathe.

Captain Crunch is everywhere. Wedged in between the couch cushions, on the coffee table and even crunching beneath her heels on the carpet. 

Maybe they aren't all so bad after all.


End file.
